When tissue surrounding a body lumen becomes cancerous or otherwise diseased, it is often necessary to remove the diseased tissue for analysis or disposal. Conventional devices and methods for such tissue removal often require open surgery to access the diseased tissue.
In addition, endoluminal tissue cutters have been known, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,947,983, issued to Solar et al. (“the Solar patent”), the entire disclosure of which is expressly incorporated herein by reference. Many of these devices relied on sutures to close the resulting wound. However, these devices have often been unwieldy as the manipulation of sutures from outside the body can be extremely difficult.